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ricyoung

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    North
  • Boat Name
    Rudd and Severn

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  1. Hi Tony, I'm sure you are right and I'm no position to argue. However, am I right in saying that the hosepipe is used to protect the deck cloth from wear? Or is it purely for decoration? If so am surprised as most other decorations have some practical origin. If it was fitted to reduce wear, then sometimes the hosepipe which is held in place at each end and not in the middle, can sometimes shift back exposing the cloth underneath - which kind of defeats the object. By using the extra rope, the hosepipe can be held in place and the wear always taken by the hose regardless of circumstance. So in our case at least this is not purely used for decoration, but serves a purpose as well. I'm not trying to argue whether this is correct or not, just my experience. Best Regards Ric
  2. Hi Colin. It's just my preference as it is very rare we are single handed and the fore end line is always availabl. I know my dad prefers to use another line direct from the mast as you describe but that requires planning in advanve! You also get a similar circumstance if you are strapping round at a junction. I suppose that by giving an example of circumstances I've started a discussion about technique, this was not my intention and I am sure there are many ways you can avoid having ropes touch the cloths. The point I was making was that if you use the extra rope as mentioned it can ensure that the hosepipe is secured in place. My assumption being that the whole point of the hosepipe is to protect the cloths. If it is purely decorative then my point is irrelevant anyway. As I said I can't argue with history, but for us it does actually do something useful Best regards Ric
  3. Hi All. I have been reading this thread with some interest, particularly Tony's point regarding the additional diagonal rope round the deck board. Whilst we are guilty of decorating Rudd in this way we have always thought that it was serving a very practical purpose. If you are single handing uphill we tend to use a tack string from the forward stud run back round the mast to hold the boat forward. This is because even at tick over the Bolinder is a bit fierce. We always assumed that the reason boats have hose pipe on the fore end was to stop abrasion of the deck cloth. However, what tends to happen is that as the weight comes on the line the hosepipe gets pulled back and the rope rubs anyway. However, if you pull the hosepipe forward about half an inch you can use the diagonal rope to hold it forward round onto the deck board. This means you have a nicely protected deck cloth. I suppose you could nail the hosepipe down, but you would still need to pull it round in some way. I have no way near enough experience to comment on any historical accuracy, but to me it really does serve a very useful purpose. I suppose now we need to decide if this is sufficient justification to look historically inaccurate. Best Regards Ric
  4. I appreciate the original question was relating to narrow / canal boats. But in the industry I work in (ship handling / harbour tugs) they are exclusively referred to as female. Generally the names are gender neutral and many are obviously females names (Svitzer Laura, Svitzer Madeleine). Interestingly though even when they are male names such as the Svitzer Brunel - named after the engineer - we will refer to her as female. From what I know this is widespread throughout the merchant marine world. Whether this was common on the inland waterways I can't say. Ric
  5. Some picture of Rudd's galley for inspiration. It is located aft the mast, but I can see no reason why it could not be forward. The shelves on the left were made to fit as they need to be pretty shallow depth. Ric.
  6. Hello. We use dulux weathershield as it is pretty cheap and works well on wood, but i guess you will use coach enamel. However for what its worth "Wild Water 1" is almost a direct match for Craftmaster BW blue wich i understand is pretty accurate. Severn is painted in oxford blue and i can conform it is not the same, its much brighter. This is probably not very useful as i doubt dulux match any RAL codes... The yellow is "Goldencup". We dont have any problems with using weathershield on metal, but it needs brightening up with owatrol now and again. The last lot lasted 10years before needing redoing. All the best from the youngs.
  7. On the subject of condensation, the only answer is good ventilation. It gets quite bad on Severn in the winter as we use PVC cloths, its not so bad on Rudd as we use Regentex (Severn will be upgraded in due course). The best solution we have found on both boats is to allow a good flow of air through the hold. On Severn we simply leave a gap at the front and the back for the wind (and leaves) to blow through. On Rudd it's harder as the cratch is clothed up, so our solution is to drop lengths of square plastic downpipe between the top and side cloths. This leaves a good gap for the air to circulate and we have not had any problems since despite leaving it alone for long periods over the winter. The other suggestion would be - an this only applies if you will be fully clothed up, obviously - don't be afraid of rolling the top cloths up when you are using the hold. It may not look traditional, but it makes a huge difference to the ventilation (see link below). There is very little you can do to make it warmer, so I wouldn't bother - just get a decent sleeping bag if you are not using the cabin to sleep in. We had a gas fire but skipped it as it never got used. If you are planning to add a sidelining then a thin sheet of plywood sprung between two battens on the shuts and under the gunnel is all you need. Based on experience of both I would spray the hullside with waxoyl then use a slightly bigger thickness of rockwool than the gap so it compresses. We have used polystyrene stuck to the plywood before and ended up with corrosion in the air gap between the insulation and the hullside. I second the idea of using the cratch as a good location for the loo by the way, although its a long walk from the cabin at 2 in the morning when its cold and raining... http://hnbc.org.uk/boats/rudd ETA - We have exactly the same cable tied pipe insulation on our cross plank chains as Fulbourne. It's saved many a sore back in its time...
  8. We have basic kitchens on both our boats, both with cloths over the hold. We have found the best solution is one or two of the IKEA stand alone stainless steel kitchen units. Unfortunately they don't seem to be on the the UK website, but if you search "IKEA Udden" you will get the idea. We have tried various combinations of domestic units and worktops and these are by far the best - mostly because the sink is formed into the worktop, so no seals to go mouldy. We use 250litre food grade drums as tanks, a cheap B&Q tap and hoselock pipe connections so you can drain and cholrinate the lines easily. The only extravagance being an electric diaphragm pump so you get running water (we tried hand and foot pumps but it gets boring after a while). Regarding ovens we buy the standard domestic stand alone ones with the hob on the top. The important thing is to get one designed and certified for multiple occupancy houses as they have flame failure devices. We have never had problems with them running LPG and I don't think we even had to change the burners. So long as your gas bottles are correctly stored you're winning. We do not have any sink wastes, the sinks just drain into heavy duty 25 litre buckets which get tipped out when nearly full - probably once a day at most. I cannot think of anything we would change as the design has evolved over the last 30 odd years and doesn't seem to have any downsides. Really useful boxes are very good for keeping pans and plates free from dust when you leave the boat - the IKEA units come with rack shelving which seems to work fine for everything else. We have a camping coolbox - search "Tristar 45 3-Way Fridge" which will run on LPG, although officially it is not a permanent installation and classed as portable. We are comfortable with it as the hold on both boats is very well ventilated and again it has flame failure so we are covered from that perspective. Using both the fridge and oven we use less than 6kg of gas per week. We also have a very effective shower created out of a large trug bucket, a smaller bucket, a 12v Whale barrel pump, a watering can rose and a shower curtain. Mix one kettle full of hot water with one bucket of cold and you get just enough time for a reasonably hot shower, An inline switch to the pump within easy reach means you can pause the water halfway through so you don't waste it. If you need more info let me know. Cheers, Ric
  9. If I was then I apologise - I certainly did't mean to mislead, even our tugs don't draw that much (although 20+ feet is quiet a bit)! All I can really add is that due to the relatively small distance from the top of the blades to the free surface, the fairly poor afterbody shape of most narrow boats and the decelerations we expect from a boat when stopping. You cannot really apply big ship or standard marine theory to narrow boats, whether the alterations being discussed make any difference I'll leave judgement to their respective owners. If anyone wants to have a more in depth chat I'd be more than happy to have it, but I suppose this tread isn't the place for it. Ric
  10. All. Thanks for all of your comments. I think I found a darker colour because I was hoping to find something out of the ordinary). I guess we will have to stick with the colours she's in now, unless we go back to Red and Green, but that sounds like far too much effort! Thanks again. Ric
  11. Thanks for the advice. I'm still convinced that the shape painted on the back of the cabin - in this case partly covered by the open cabin door - is a much darker colour than the blue of the cabin. Even compared to the (presumably) blue tunnel band which is facing the same direction. Either way, the standard livery is the way we should go, so we'l use the colour image we have as a reference. Cheers. Ric
  12. Many thanks Lawrence, you've answered a question which has been on my mind for a long while. It's interesting that the back of the cabin is painted a much darker colour than I'd normally expect, it looks almost black. I guess this is another example of personal preference in how the boats were painted. It would appear that, if it is black, then the blue of the cabin is quite light. I'll ask Dad if he can scan the other colour photo we have and post it here in case anyone else is interested. If you have any others photos of Rudd I'd love to see them. Thanks again. Ric
  13. Dear All. Hopefully with your combined knowledge you can help me out with tracking down which colours Rudd carried in. We have very few pictures of Rudd when she was working, probably as she was one of the maintenance boats at Harecastle for much of her Nationalised life. We have one of her in red and green at the bottom of the 21 at Wolverhampton, and one taken on the Shropppie wearing the same colours as she is painted in at present (blue panels / yellow and blue frames with roundels on the engine room). I have always been a fan of the bolder blue and yellow colour schemes, especially the blue panels / all yellow frames like the picture of Ling on the FMC - Ling thread (the inverse of how Shad is painted at the moment). However, since we have no other pictures of Rudd I cannot really justify changing the colours just to suit me as I have no idea if it is any way accurate. Could anyone help out at all? I don't know if there was a particular North / South divide, or whether there was any rhyme or reason for the different Waterways colour schemes. Colours of the Cut doesn't really shed any light. If the worst comes to the worst she will stay as she is, at least we've got a photo to prove it! I look forward to hearing from you. Ric
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